Trump plans to use the 1798 law to break up the Tren de Aragua illegal immigrant gang – and drive criminals out of the United States

Former President Donald Trump traveled to a gang-ravaged Denver suburb on Friday to announce plans to invoke a 226-year-old law to detect and deport illegal immigrant criminals across the United States.

The Republican candidate, 78, told his supporters in Aurora, Colorado, that he would take action against the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), whose members have infiltrated the city of nearly 400,000 people.

At least 10 soldiers from the violent prison gang have been arrested in Aurora, where criminals have wreaked havoc and even taken over apartment complexes.

“What are they doing with Colorado? “You are ruining your state,” Trump asked at the start of his speech, before taking aim at his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Kamala imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from Third World dungeons,” Trump said.

“I will save Aurora and every city that has been invaded and conquered,” he continued, saying his government will “either put these evil and bloodthirsty criminals in prison” or “get them the hell out of our country.”

“These are stone-cold killers,” Trump added, urging voters in the Centennial State to protest what Democratic authorities have done to “the fabric of your culture.”

According to authorities, two of the most heinous recent crimes involving illegal immigrants were committed by members of the TdA.

Jose Ibarra, the suspected killer of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, is a gang member — as are his two brothers, Department of Homeland Security sources previously told The Post.

Additionally, the two migrants accused of killing 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray of Houston are suspected of having gang ties.

In honor of those who died, Trump said: “We will stage a federal Operation Aurora to expedite the removal of these cruel gangs.”

“I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798,” he continued, “to target and dismantle every criminal network operating on American soil.”

Trump also said he would impose a 10-year prison sentence on migrants who re-enter the U.S. after being deported and impose the death penalty on illegal migrants who kill American citizens.

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows the president to authorize citizens of enemy nations to be “arrested, restrained, secured and removed” if they are deemed a threat to the United States during war.

The law was last used after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered non-citizens from Japan, Germany and Italy to “maintain the peace toward the United States and refrain from committing crimes against the public safety.” and to violate the laws of the United States and the states and territories thereof; and to “refrain from actual hostility or the provision of information, aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States or from interfering by words or deeds with the defense of the United States or their political processes and public opinions” – under penalty of arrest, imprisonment or Deportation.

Invoking the law would theoretically allow Trump to order the summary deportation of illegal immigrants without first seeking permission from an immigration judge.

Any attempt by Trump to invoke the 18th-century law is likely to face legal challenges from immigration advocates and defense attorneys who might argue that it constitutes a violation of habeus corpus and due process – as well as the fact that that the law was only intended to come into force in times of war.

Immigration officials celebrated Trump’s proposal, with one Border Patrol agent telling The Post, “F—yes.”

“I think it’s great if he can make it happen,” the agent added. “It has been far too long that we have sat idly by, knowing that not everyone who enters illegally is a criminal, but that we have to let the scumbags in too. And they know that they can hide behind this government’s dream world: ‘These are oppressed people’.”

“Say less. I think this is a great idea,” said a second Border Patrol agent.

“This current administration has left the borders wide open and these sophisticated cartels have found ways to exploit them and make a profit.” “These gangs pose a direct threat to the United States,” an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) source said ) on Friday.

“All of this could have been avoided if ICE had been able to do its job,” a second ICE source added.

Trump’s stop in Colorado highlights the former president’s strategy of focusing on the border as one of his key closing arguments against Harris.

While Colorado is not considered a swing state at the presidential level, it has two congressional districts where races will determine control of the House in January 2025.

“My message today is very simple,” Trump said in Aurora: “No one who inflicted the violence and terror that Kamala Harris inflicted on this community should ever be president of the United States.”